Somali Soccer Fans Executed For Watching World Cup

Gunmen believed to be from a radical Islamic group in northeast Mogadishu, Somalia, shot two people dead during an impromptu raid on a house where people were watching a World Cup match Saturday night, Reuters reports.

A witness told reporters that masked militants “stormed into the house” and open fired at the World Cup viewers, killing two instantly. The militants rounded up about 10 other fans, but left the bodies in the home, the witness said.

The incident came on the heels of a national ban on viewing “un-Islamic” World Cup games made by the local militia group al Shabaab, which controls much of south and central Somalia by force. By al Shabaab’s logic, the championship interferes with the group’s plan to overthrow the government, because Somali citizens are too preoccupied with the games to fight on their behalf.

Other militant groups have also professed their disapproval of the World Cup.